John McCusker, The Times-PicayuneLongtime Orleans Parish Coroner Dr. Frank Minyard on Wednesday took some of the responsibility for a mix up that led to the cremation of a murder victim. John Gagliano, chief investigator for the department, is in the background

But because of the body mix-up, the crematorium, St. John Cemetery Crematory on Canal Street won't release Bias' ashes to his family without a court order. The family's attorney, Allain Hardin, will request an order in Civil District Court on Thursday, with hopes that the ashes can be released in time for Saturday's memorial service.

"It would make it 10 times worse if they don't have the remains," Hardin said.

The crematory's receptionist said on Wednesday that the business had no comment.

On Friday afternoon, Littlejohn Funeral Home went to the coroner's office to pick up the body but was told it wasn't there and that the driver should come back in 30 minutes, Hardin said. When the driver returned, the coroner's staff admitted that Bias' remains had been picked up that morning by Heritage Funeral Home.

But before the coroner's office realized its mistake, Bias' body had been cremated, around midday Friday.

Ralph Bias, at his high school graduation from Cohen Senior High School.

"Heritage had come to retrieve the body of an elderly white man. But instead of getting him, they got the body of Ralph Bias, a 20-year-old black male," Hardin said.

Initially, Hardin said that he had understood that the elderly man's body was unclaimed, but Minyard said at Wednesday's news conference that Heritage was hired by the man's family.

Heritage owner Arthur Hickerson, who worked as a driver for the coroner more than 15 years ago, appeared with Minyard on Wednesday but referred questions to lawyer Regina Wedig.

Wedig also deferred questions about the incident, pending completion of a review, she said.

He said he doesn't expect something like this to happen again. "But the potential is there, because of the number of bodies we store," he said. On average, the coroner's current Central City office has 80 bodies stacked up inside three refrigeration trucks parked in the back.

The high corpse count is because of high levels of violence in the community and tragic events like last month's 9th Ward warehouse fire, Minyard said. And sometimes it takes a while for families to move them out. "Lots of people can't afford a funeral, so we hold the bodies out of the kindness of our hearts, to try and help people," Minyard said.

The floods of 2005 washed away Minyard's former office, and he has long hoped to build a new one at Earhart Boulevard and South Claiborne, he said.

Mayor Ray Nagin's administration "led me to believe that they were going to dance with me and give me a kiss. But all they gave me was a kick," he said.

Cedric Grant, a deputy mayor in Mitch Landrieu's administration, noted in an e-mail message that a combined coroner-EMS facility is part of the Landrieu administration's top 100 projects, and that there is $5.9 million available for the project. The administration has developed facility plans and is in the design phase for the site Minyard mentioned, Grant wrote.

FEMA still has $3 million that has been obligated to the coroner's office but not paid, said spokesman Ray Perez. But the city has yet to submit plans for the Earhart facility, he said.

Until the new building is constructed, bodies are stacked two to a table, Minyard said.

And on Friday, body bags holding the elderly man and Bias were on the same table, but a young man from the coroner's office "picked up the wrong bag, an act so simple," Minyard said.

When the coroner's drivers pick up a body, they attach two plastic hospital-style bands, one around the wrist and a second one to the handle of the body bag, Minyard said.

But on Friday, the two body bags were apparently stacked in a way that the handles were in the same location, side by side, the family was told. So someone confused the two labels, which is why Bias' body was put into Heritage's hearse and taken to the crematorium, Minyard said.

"We made that mistake. We are eternally sorry," he said.

His employee was also supposed to open the bag and look before release, Minyard said.